Life in space is much different from life on earth. How do astronauts live in space?

    Eating    In the past, astronauts could only eat small pieces of dried food. But now they are able to eat more everyday food like fruit, vegetables and ice-cream.

    Sleeping    All the people on the ISS（国际空间站）have their own rooms. They should be tied（系）to their beds, or they'll fly away! That seems like a hard way to sleep, but astronauts say sleeping is really not too bad.

    Exercising    This is more important in space than on earth. Astronauts exercise on bikes and other machines（机器）for about two hours every day. That way, they can still be healthy when they get back home.

    Having fun    Astronauts can read books, play cards, listen to music or send emails to their friends and families when they aren't working. Sometimes they just sit and look out of the window. It's also much fun!

    A series of Chinese landscapes (风景) created by an AI (人工智能) robot, named Gemini, is shown in London.

    It was believed to be the first AI-made ink work. Ink Now Chairman Calvin Hui sees it as the start of the tech ink times.

    It took Victor Wong, the Hong Kong artist, around three years to build and program Gemini. He has been interested in traditional art since he was young. "Few younger people nowadays care about ink, so I decided to bring technology and ink art together." says the artist, "I want to tell them that ink painting is not that hard to do."

    Each landscape painting can take around 60 hours to finish. First, the robot artist creates his own landscape in his AI mind. Then he's traveling inside his mind and picking up an angle (角度) because it's 3D. After that he uses an arm that puts the brush into ink and water before sweeping across Xuan paper to create Chinese Shuimo artwork.

    However, in some people's opinion, whether robots can create ink art like human artists is not sure because the ink lines were too, straight while works created by human hands are better. "I'm open to all comments," he said, "I'm keeping an open mind as to whether machine-made art can be seen as art. But I hope it will bring an imagination to artists on how to mix technology while painting or creating.

    Since the first person walked on the moon in 1969, technology has greatly helped space exploration. In recent years scientists have built a special robot to accompany astronauts on space missions (任务). Because this robot looks and moves like a person, scientists call it a humanoid robot. The latest model of the humanoid robot is known as R2, short for Robonaut 2.

    R2 was first launched into space on February 24, 2011. It was built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the car producer General Motors (GM).

    R2 weighs 330 pounds and costs $2.5 million to build. It has arms and a head- filled with vision equipment—but no legs. Its "brain", or computer, is in its stomach. R2's arms can hold 20 pounds. Each bendable finger has 5 pounds of grasping force. R2's hands are also skillful. Since its hands are shaped like human hands, R2 can use human tools to complete tasks traditionally performed by astronauts." Astronauts absolutely have their day packed from the minute they wake up until they go to bed. If Robonaut can provide just an hour's worth of relief to the astronauts doing something they don't want to do, that would make it worth it right there," says Nic Radford, the deputy project manager of R2.

    One advantage of working with R2 will be that ii can't complain about its work! Astronauts will also appreciate the fact that the robot can perform its duties without constant supervision (监管). R2 can be assigned a task and then checked on periodically. If R2 does not complete a task correctly, astronauts will be able to make minor adjustments to adapt (适应) the robot's behavior so that the task gets done right.

    R2 is still in the design stage of development, which means that scientists are frequently testing it and looking for ways to improve it. Right now, humanoid robots do not have the protective equipment needed to work outside the space station. As technology advances, humanoid robots will be able to help astronauts with dangerous tasks as well as routine ones.

    In the future, humanoid robots will be astronauts' eyes in space, going to places considered too difficult or unsafe for astronauts to explore. Some of them will be mounted on wheels to explore the surface of planets or asteroids (小行星). The robots will be able to send back videos and help astronauts gather information about the atmospheres of these places.

    One outcome of using these humanoid robots will be a greater understanding of the interaction between humans and robots. NASA engineers believe that when humans and robots combine forces and work together, the results will be better than what either could achieve alone. John Olson, a director at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C, says that the project will allow us to go farther and achieve more than we can probably even imagine today.

    What is the best way to help control air pollution in our towns and cities? Choose public transportation instead of private cars, or reduce the total amount of cars on the street. These can be useful. But here is a more creative way—write a poem.

    "I write in praise of air. I was six or five, when a magician opened my fist(拳头), and I held in my hand the whole of the sky."

    Professor Tony Ryan (the science expert) and Professor Simon Armitage(the words expert), from the University of Sheffield, UK, came up with the idea.

    But in fact, the poem is not the key part. It is the poster that the poem was written on that plays the biggest part. The poster is 10 meters by 20 meters. It is coated with nanoparticles(纳米粒) of titanium dioxide (二氧化钛). It can absorb the waste from around 20 cars each day if you put it by a busy road. The poster is now displayed on one of the University of Sheffield's buildings.

    It doesn't get rid of all the pollutants from traffic, but it will eat up things called nitrogen oxides (氧化氮). These play a part in breathing problems, including asthma(哮喘).

    The technology is cheap. "It would add less than £100 to the cost of a poster and would turn advertisements into catalysts(催化剂) in more ways than one," Ryan told the BBC.

    He's also working on another idea, which is to add the nanoparticles to washing powder, so that your clothes soak up these poisons while you walk along. And you wouldn't be able to see or feel anything different.

    A few years after World War Ⅱ finished, scientists spoke with great eagerness about the use of nuclear power as a source of energy. Within twenty years, they said, nuclear would take the place of coal, gas and oil as a source of power at home and in industry. This promise has never been carried out(兑现)and there are serious doubts that it ever will be. Nuclear power plants are used to produce energy in some wealthier countries, but the cost is high.

    Although safety measures have been taken, radiation leaks have taken place and workers have been killed or affected. The problem of getting rid of the nuclear waste has proved most difficult. There is a limit to the amount of waste materials which can be buried in the ground or poured on the sea-bed. These methods may also cause more problems. Waste materials polluted by radiation may remain dangerous for 200 years or more.

    It is no surprise that scientists have now turned to the sun and the sea as sources of power. The sun shines day after day almost wastefully, providing us with energy far be yond all our needs.